The birth of their son was soon followed by the death of the mother,
and the abduction of the child. Years had passed, when the Signor Grimaldi
was first apprized of the existence of the latter. He had received this
important information at a moment when the authorities of Genoa were most
active in pursuing those who had long and desperately trifled with the
laws, and the avowed motive for the revelation was an appeal to his
natural affection in behalf of a son, who was likely to become the victim
of his practices. The recovery of a child under such circumstances was a
blow severer than his loss, and it will readily be supposed that the truth
of the pretension of Maso, who then went by the name of Bartolomeo
Contini, was admitted with the greatest caution. Reference had been made
by the friends of the smuggler to a dying monk, whose character was above
suspicion, and who corroborated, with his latest breath, the statement of
Maso, by affirming before God and the saints that he knew him, so far as
man could know a fact like this, to be the son of the Signer Grimaldi;
This grave testimony, given under circumstances of such solemnity, and
supported by the production of important papers that had been stolen with
the child, removed the suspicions of the Doge.
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